OF HARTING. 457 



legs, and that, in reality, they are living insects. This 

 is the appearance of a family of the parasitic Uropoda 

 vegetans, each individual, like the egg of Chrysopa 

 Perla among the Neuroptera, being supported on a 

 slender filament. There is, however, this difference 

 between the two, the peduncle of the latter is solid, 

 while that of Uropoda vegetans is a hollow tube, serving 

 the purpose of an umbilical cord, through which the 

 nutriment, extracted from the body of the beetle, is 

 conveyed, first to the egg and subsequently to the 

 fully developed mite. Although the agency is yet to 

 be discovered by means of which the communication 

 between the tube and the softer tissues of the beetle 

 is effected, the result is the evident exhaustion of the 

 latter when its parasites are numerous. These even- 

 tually detach themselves from their anal support, and, 

 exchanging their pedunculated life for an active one, 

 betake themselves to the important business of repro- 

 duction and the planting of other colonies. 



Chelifer Cancroides is another curious Mite fre- 

 quenting damp situations under moss and the bark 

 of trees, where we have often met with it, it is also 

 found in collections of dried plants, as well as among 

 old books, and is there supposed to prey on other 

 creatures smaller than itself. It is about the eighth 

 of an inch in length, and of such a remarkable appear- 

 ance, that it is scarcely possible to confound it with 

 any other genus. Its legs are comparatively short 

 and slender, but its projecting palpi, or feelers, are 

 as long as its entire body, and each armed at the ex- 

 tremity with a pair of formidable-looking scorpion 

 claws, with which it is capable of seizing its prey and 

 firmly holding it. When disturbed, it moves equally 

 well in any direction, backwards, forwards, or side- 

 ways, crab-like. 



Among our representatives of the class Myriapoda* 



Class MYRIAPODA. From the Greek, myrios, numberless, 

 and pous, podos, foot, many footed. 



